Micah 2:1–13

Woe to the Oppressors

2^lWoe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil ^mon their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

²They covet fields and ⁿseize them,

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

³Therefore thus says the Lord:

behold, against ^othis family I am devising disaster,¹

from which you cannot remove your necks,

and you ^pshall not walk haughtily,

^qfor it will be a time of disaster.

⁴In that day ^rthey shall take up a taunt song against you

and moan bitterly,

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

^she changes the portion of my people;

^show he removes it from me!

^tTo an apostate he allots our fields.”

⁵Therefore you will have none ^uto cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the Lord.

^6v“Do not preach”—thus they preach—

^w“one should not preach of such things;

^xdisgrace will not overtake us.”

⁷Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

^vHas the Lord grown impatient?²

Are these his deeds?

Do not my words do good

to him who walks uprightly?

⁸But lately ^ymy people have risen up as an enemy;

you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.³

⁹The women of my people you drive out

from their delightful houses;

from their young children you take away

my splendor forever.

^10zArise and go,

for this is no ^aplace to rest,

because of ^buncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

¹¹If a man should go about and ^cutter wind and lies,

saying, “I will preach to you ^dof wine and strong drink,”

he would be the preacher for this people!

¹²I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;

^eI will gather ^fthe remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

^hlike a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

¹³ⁱHe who opens the breach goes up before them;

they break through and pass the gate,

^jgoing out by it.

Their king passes on before them,

^kthe Lord at their head.